A California congresswoman is pointing the finger at white supremacist groups, who she says have inspired Arizona's new law cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., told a Democratic Club on Tuesday that white supremacist groups are influencing lawmakers to adopt laws that will lead to discrimination.

"There's a concerted effort behind promoting these kinds of laws on a state-by-state basis by people who have ties to white supremacy groups," said the lawmaker, who is of Mexican descent. "It's been documented. It's not mainstream politics."

Click here to listen to the audio tape.

Sanchez said front organizations for white supremacist groups are approaching lawmakers to propose the language to the bills and urging them to push them through state legislatures in an effort to legalize discrimination.

"It creates a Jim Crow system where based on the color of your skin you could be treated as a second-class citizen or harassed based on how you look," she said.

The Arizona law, which makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally, requires police enforcing any other law to question people about their immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the country illegally.

Supporters of the law say it will save taxpayer money and reduce crime by pressuring illegal immigrants to self-deport. But critics say the law is unconstitutional and promotes racial profiling.

"It's trying to find somebody somewhere you can accuse of something," Miller told the newspaper. "It's red herring. (She's) trying to change the debate from what the law says."

A spokesman for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who met with President Obama Thursday to discuss immigration and border security, also criticized Sanchez's comments.

"Gov. Brewer signed S.B. 1070 because it mirrors what is already federal law and because our federal government has failed to secure our international border, leading to Arizona become a super highway of illegal drug and human trafficking," Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Sanchez told the newspaper after her speech that she based her accusation on online stories, particularly a blog written by Andrea Nill, an immigration researcher for ThinkProgress, an offshoot of the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Nill wrote that the Immigration Law Reform Institute, the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), helped write the law. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled FAIR a hate group, a designation that the organization disputes.

Sanchez sought to clarify her comments Thursday.

"I never said that everyone who supports the Arizona law is a racist or white supremacist," she said in a written statement. "Anyone who says different is just trying to inflame the issue and get away from the real discussion of how to reform the immigration system in this country."

"The only way we are going to fix this problem is to have federal legislation," she added. "Unfortunately, the people who get on the airwaves to stir up anger by misconstruing my comments are not interested in constructive solutions. They're interested in dividing this country into 'us' and 'them' and totally undermining attempts to bring about real solutions."

KC native

06-03-2010, 03:55 PM

"I never said that everyone who supports the Arizona law is a racist or white supremacist," she said in a written statement. "Anyone who says different is just trying to inflame the issue and get away from the real discussion of how to reform the immigration system in this country."

"The only way we are going to fix this problem is to have federal legislation," she added. "Unfortunately, the people who get on the airwaves to stir up anger by misconstruing my comments are not interested in constructive solutions. They're interested in dividing this country into 'us' and 'them' and totally undermining attempts to bring about real solutions."

.

BucEyedPea

06-03-2010, 03:57 PM

It's 82% that support the AZ law.

HonestChieffan

06-03-2010, 03:59 PM

It's 82% that support the AZ law.

All nuts and skinheads. Thanks though for setting the number right.

ClevelandBronco

06-03-2010, 03:59 PM

Being white doesn't have anything to do with knowing that the Mexican culture is an unmitigated disaster.

HonestChieffan

06-03-2010, 04:00 PM

Being white doesn't have anything to do with knowing that the Mexican culture is an unmitigated disaster.

They make a good bean.

HC_Chief

06-03-2010, 04:04 PM

"There's a concerted effort behind promoting these kinds of laws on a state-by-state basis by people who have ties to white supremacy groups," said the lawmaker, who is of Mexican descent. "It's been documented. It's not mainstream politics."

"I never said that everyone who supports the Arizona law is a racist or white supremacist," she said in a written statement. "Anyone who says different is just trying to inflame the issue and get away from the real discussion of how to reform the immigration system in this country."

Technically she is correct... she asserted that the laws are derived from a vast right-wing neo-nazi conspiracy. No, wait, that's too specific... "people with ties to white supremacy groups"; must keep it vague, otherwise people may recognize the strawman.

Saul Good

06-03-2010, 04:09 PM

"There's a concerted effort behind promoting these kinds of laws on a state-by-state basis by people who have ties to white supremacy groups," said the lawmaker, who is of Mexican descent. "It's been documented. It's not mainstream politics."

At least something in Arizona is documented. Lord knows the Mexicans aren't.

HonestChieffan

06-03-2010, 04:11 PM

At least something in Arizona is documented. Lord knows the Mexicans aren't.

Rep

healthpellets

06-03-2010, 04:40 PM

"It creates a Jim Crow system where based on the color of your skin you could be treated as a second-class citizen or harassed based on how you look," she said.

hey, leaders of the of the black civil rights movement. how you feel about some other group taking the real struggles you've been through, and just piggy-backing on them like they went through Jim Crow, bussing, and true racist treatment. how many of them were ever yanked off the street just for talking to a white girl?

ya, i'd be pissed too.

ClevelandBronco

06-03-2010, 04:44 PM

...how many of them were ever yanked off the street just for talking to a white girl?

Actually, quite a few.

HC_Chief

06-03-2010, 04:50 PM

Actually, quite a few.

"Quite a few" illegals have been "yanked off the street just for talking to a white girl"?

ClevelandBronco

06-03-2010, 05:01 PM

"Quite a few" illegals have been "yanked off the street just for talking to a white girl"?

You and I seem to be thinking about different eras. I'm not talking about present day illegals.

But pellets wasn't talking about present day blacks.

banyon

06-03-2010, 05:17 PM

White supremacists probably do support the legislation, but it's not exactly like they have some great political pull. In fact, as that South Park episode referenced, usually it makes people want to be on the other side of the issue. I think that's the political game being played here.

People just need to be reminded that violent drug traffickers and gang members probably support the status quo or amnesty as well.

KC native

06-03-2010, 09:44 PM

White supremacists probably do support the legislation, but it's not exactly like they have some great political pull. In fact, as that South Park episode referenced, usually it makes people want to be on the other side of the issue. I think that's the political game being played here.

People just need to be reminded that violent drug traffickers and gang members probably support the status quo or amnesty as well.

Um, in Arizona they are closely tied with Arpaio and the sponsor of this bill.

There are some things about state Sen. Russell Pearce, the author of Arizona's new police-state immigration law, that Greta Van Susteren and all the other Fox anchors who've had him on this past week aren't telling you.

Indeed, they let him just come on and spew misleading nonsense, as he did last night on On the Record, telling Van Susteren that the law only "takes the handcuffs off" for law enforcement officers and "allows" them to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Actually, it requires them to.

Well, we mentioned previously that Pearce has a colorful background involving the white-supremacist far right, including dalliances -- like his close pal Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- with neo-Nazis.

Rachel Maddow discussed some of this in her segment last night, but it's worth discussing some more so that people can fully appreciate the nature of the police state just signed into law in Arizona. Byron York has proclaimed it "a very carefully crafted law" -- and he is quite correct about that. Crafted to what end, however, is quite another story.

Y'see, back in 2006, Pearce caught a lot of people's attention by forwarding to a bunch of his friends and associates an article on immigration from a neo-Nazi news source -- namely, the National Alliance, the folks who brought you The Turner Diaries. The article was about Jewish control of the media and how it supposedly creates a bias against whites and favors minorities and Israel. Pearce apologized, but never could explain why he was reading material from the National Alliance in the first place.

But then he was seen working arm in arm with this fellow:
http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/uploads/2010/04/Ready-Pearce_39e1d.JPG
That's a guy named J.T. Ready, who also happens to be one of Arizona's leading neo-Nazis. Here's J.T. at a neo-Nazi rally in Nebraska:

http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/uploads/2010/04/JTReady_c0a49.JPG

Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times reported:

Ready's tight with state Representative Russell Pearce, who's bashed Mexicans ever since a Latino teen shot off his finger when he was a county sheriff's deputy. Pearce is a racist law machine, pumping out statute after statute targeting the brown segment of AZ's population. At a June anti-illegal demonstration at the state Capitol, Ready and Pearce worked the crowd arm-in-arm.

Remember when Pearce forwarded a neo-Nazi e-mail to supporters in '06? Pearce claimed a "friend" sent him the e-mail. Could that "friend" have a last name that rhymes with "Freddy"?

The blanket isn't big enough these days for all the bigoted bedfellows who want in on the nativist lovefest. In any other state, Pearce's ties to a white nationalist like Ready would make him a pariah, especially after the outrage over that neo-Nazi e-mail.

Instead, both Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Candy Thomas recently honored Pearce at a "gala reception" and dinner to raise moolah for Pearce's committee exploring a primary challenge to Congressman Jeff Flake, a moderate Republican who's championed comprehensive immigration reform. It was $100 a plate for the dinner, $200 if you wanted a pic of yourself with Thomas, Arpaio, or radio wingnut Bruce Jacobs. Minuteman leader Chris Simcox was on the fundraiser's planning committee.

Pearce's political career has been built on an obsessive effort to demonize, scapegoat, and attack Latino immigrants. One of his more noteworthy previous efforts was an effort to eliminate Hispanic outreach programs in Arizona schools, predicated on the phony "MEChA is racist" meme. He's also proclaimed that illegal immigrants have no rights under the Constitution.

Just as noteworthy, perhaps, is this bit from his Wikipedia bio:

In 1995, Pearce became the Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division. Pearce was fired from that position in 1999 by then Arizona Department of Transportation Director Mary Peters after an investigation revealed that Pearce and two underlings had tampered with a Tucson woman's driving record.

This is someone who obviously has no problem with handing police officers totalitarian powers -- and no problem with a little procedural abuse along the way.

And now his vision of law enforcement is Arizona law. Lovely.

banyon

06-03-2010, 09:58 PM

Um, in Arizona they are closely tied with Arpaio and the sponsor of this bill.

Remember when Pearce forwarded a neo-Nazi e-mail to supporters in '06? Pearce claimed a "friend" sent him the e-mail. Could that "friend" have a last name that rhymes with "Freddy"?

He forwarded an e-mail to people? That's seriously the link you're trying to make here?

KC native

06-03-2010, 10:05 PM

He forwarded an e-mail to people? That's seriously the link you're trying to make here?

Yea, let's ignore the friendly picture.

healthpellets

06-03-2010, 10:17 PM

omfg. i love how we need to trot out the racist bullshit. asking LEOs to arrest someone who is breaking the law NO MATTER what his skin color is kind of their JOB. right?

i simply CANNOT understand where you people get off claiming that this law has some racist intent. i'm sorry that the majority of the illegals in Arizona are of Mexican heritage. but they are breaking the law, no? and this law is attempting to give a little help to those seeking to enforce the law, no? so instead of backing those attempting to enforce the laws, you're supporting those that are willfully breaking the law.

what i ESPECIALLY don't understand, is how anyone of Mexican heritage here LEGALLY would want to support their illegal brothers and sisters. your family is breaking the law. yet, you want to rally in support their law breaking. it blows my mind every time i'm on the plaza and there is one of those rallies going on. for the life of me, i wouldn't want to be out there waving Mexican flags supporting law breakers. it just screams "look at me! i support people that willfully break the law!" why would you want to be seen in that light? it's no better than the family of a crack dealer than gets on the news after the arrest of their son/brother/father and says "he was just doin what he had to do to get by. shouldn't arrest him for that." no, you jackass. there are plenty of ways to make a legal living. selling drugs to kids isn't one of them. and neither is illegally entering the USA.

we often punish criminals (although not admittedly) for their propensity to commit future offenses. so how are we supposed to judge those who have broken the law to enter the country illegally? you've committed one crime, what's to stop you from committing another? and another?

immigration can have many great benefits for a country. which is why we have immigration quotas. but hey, why obey the laws and request legal entry?

i'm not well-versed in military law, but one of these days, some executive is going to get sick and tired of this crap and order the Army down to the boarder to round up and mass-deport illegals. and it's not going to be pretty. but they will have backed themselves in to that corner. but that won't come soon enough.

i've never been one that's had any issues with immigration, legal or illegal, until recently. it's just never really been an issue that i'm overly passionate about. but watching the vitriol and hatred stream from the left with their repeated playing of the race card has ignited some fire inside of me. every time someone lobs the racist slur unnecessarily, it weakens the impact just a little bit. how bout saving some of that impact for a time when it's really needed? this is not that time.

banyon

06-03-2010, 10:17 PM

Yea, let's ignore the friendly picture.

You don't think politicians stop and shake hands and pose for pictures with people they don't necessarily know that well?

KC native

06-03-2010, 10:20 PM

You don't think politicians stop and shake hands and pose for pictures with people they don't necessarily know that well?

Yea, let's ignore the local reporter's take on it.

Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times reported:

Ready's tight with state Representative Russell Pearce, who's bashed Mexicans ever since a Latino teen shot off his finger when he was a county sheriff's deputy. Pearce is a racist law machine, pumping out statute after statute targeting the brown segment of AZ's population. At a June anti-illegal demonstration at the state Capitol, Ready and Pearce worked the crowd arm-in-arm.

healthpellets

06-03-2010, 10:23 PM

Yea, let's ignore the friendly picture.

yes, let's do that.

do you have any concept of the number of people one encounters when campaigning? any at all? on a good day at a county fair, one could hope to talk to over 1,000 people. at any point during that day alone, could someone say to the candidate, "Hey, let me snap a picture with you." Is it the candidate's fault for not knowing who the person was? No. Not at all.

So how you can go around blaming a politician for allowing a photo to be taken of himself with another person (regardless of the other person's history or whatever) is beyond me.

At worst, you could blame his handlers for not knowing who the neo-nazi was in the group.

KC native

06-03-2010, 10:25 PM

yes, let's do that.

do you have any concept of the number of people one encounters when campaigning? any at all? on a good day at a county fair, one could hope to talk to over 1,000 people. at any point during that day alone, could someone say to the candidate, "Hey, let me snap a picture with you." Is it the candidate's fault for not knowing who the person was? No. Not at all.

So how you can go around blaming a politician for allowing a photo to be taken of himself with another person (regardless of the other person's history or whatever) is beyond me.

At worst, you could blame his handlers for not knowing who the neo-nazi was in the group.

Pearce's record speaks for itself and see my post above.

healthpellets

06-03-2010, 10:25 PM

Yea, let's ignore the local reporter's take on it.

Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times reported:
Ready's tight with state Representative Russell Pearce, who's bashed Mexicans ever since a Latino teen shot off his finger when he was a county sheriff's deputy. Pearce is a racist law machine, pumping out statute after statute targeting the brown segment of AZ's population. At a June anti-illegal demonstration at the state Capitol, Ready and Pearce worked the crowd arm-in-arm

sounds like a very unbiased reporter. :hmmm:

KC native

06-03-2010, 10:31 PM

sounds like a very unbiased reporter. :hmmm:

Oh, here's an article about Arpaio's ties and this little juicy tidbit about Ready, who Pearce definitely knows.

Standing nearby was J.T. Ready, ex-Mesa City Council candidate, former Republican precinct committeeman, and erstwhile associate of State Senator Russell Pearce. Ready was waving a huge Confederate flag and wiping imaginary "Mexcrement," as he called it, onto a real Mexican tricolor on the ground.

Ready is the most infamous neo-Nazi in Maricopa County, known for handing out anti-Semitic screeds at Republican Party functions, for his activism in anti-immigration circles, and for his occasional run-ins with law enforcement, which have included getting arrested in 2007 for driving with fictitious plates on his black Chevy Impala and possessing a pre-emption emitter, which allows him to bypass red lights. Also in his car at the time were a 9-millimeter Beretta, white-power literature, and binoculars.

blaise

06-04-2010, 07:51 AM

I never said that people who support the law are racists, I'm just linking it with white supremicist groups and a Jim Crow system. That's all. Sorry if you took it as me trying to say people who support it are racist.

Baby Lee

06-04-2010, 09:17 AM

John Wayne Gacy invented KC barbecue. How you like them apples? ;)

talastan

06-04-2010, 10:46 AM

Under the AZ law if Jorgan Von Brandenschmidt comes to AZ with Blond hair and blue eyes and a funny accent I fully expect the law enforcement officers to inquire about his immigration status just like they would with someone of Mexican descent. The location is the only thing that is causing the fury over this law. If this law was passed in Minnesota there wouldn't even be anyone batting an eye. We've allowed the left to make illegal immigration a Mexican issue; which of course it isn't just limited to Mexicans, and is more racist than the law that AZ has passed.

ClevelandBronco

06-04-2010, 11:08 AM

Under the AZ law if Jorgan Von Brandenschmidt comes to AZ with Blond hair and blue eyes and a funny accent I fully expect the law enforcement officers to inquire about his immigration status just like they would with someone of Mexican descent. The location is the only thing that is causing the fury over this law. If this law was passed in Minnesota there wouldn't even be anyone batting an eye. We've allowed the left to make illegal immigration a Mexican issue; which of course it isn't just limited to Mexicans, and is more racist than the law that AZ has passed.

Yeah, the law is written so that it might have a chance of clearing the legal hurdles it will encounter, but it's disingenuous to say that it doesn't target Hispanics. It's not as if Arizona is awash in a sea of illegal immigrants from Lithuania.

If it wasn't for a ridiculous number of illegal Latinos — with the largest fraction of those being illegal Mexicans — Arizona wouldn't have a problem that it would feel the need to solve with a law such as this. It's as simple as that. They need a way to get rid of some they do encounter and frighten off a few others.

Let's not blow smoke up each others' asses. We're not running for office.

donkhater

06-04-2010, 11:43 AM

Just as with our drug enforcement policy, we are attacking the supply and not the demand.

Drugs are in high demand, so no matter what measures you take against the supply side, there will always be motivation (mostly illegal) to to provide it. And it gets you nowhere.

Illegal immigrants come to Americato look for work. If you pass laws to deal with the supply of labor, somehow that will get replenished. Instead, deal with the demand and aggressively go after employers that hire illegal immigrants. The 'supply' of labor will dry up.

LOCOChief

06-04-2010, 01:08 PM

.

Are you saying that you are on your period MexNative? Here's a better quote from the Mexican U.S. lawmaker.

"There's a concerted effort behind promoting these kinds of laws on a state-by-state basis by people who have ties to white supremacy groups," said the lawmaker, who is of Mexican descent. "It's been documented. It's not mainstream politics."

alnorth

06-04-2010, 01:26 PM

Just as with our drug enforcement policy, we are attacking the supply and not the demand.

Drugs are in high demand, so no matter what measures you take against the supply side, there will always be motivation (mostly illegal) to to provide it. And it gets you nowhere.

Illegal immigrants come to Americato look for work. If you pass laws to deal with the supply of labor, somehow that will get replenished. Instead, deal with the demand and aggressively go after employers that hire illegal immigrants. The 'supply' of labor will dry up.

Doesn't necessarily mean we can't chew gum and walk at the same time, even though walking is the more important task of the two. I agree with striking fear in the hearts of employers, but you don't have to ignore the supply side of the equation.

KC native

06-04-2010, 02:51 PM

Are you saying that you are on your period MexNative? Here's a better quote from the Mexican U.S. lawmaker.

"There's a concerted effort behind promoting these kinds of laws on a state-by-state basis by people who have ties to white supremacy groups," said the lawmaker, who is of Mexican descent. "It's been documented. It's not mainstream politics."

You didn't read anything I posted did you?

KC native

06-04-2010, 02:52 PM

Just as with our drug enforcement policy, we are attacking the supply and not the demand.

Drugs are in high demand, so no matter what measures you take against the supply side, there will always be motivation (mostly illegal) to to provide it. And it gets you nowhere.

Illegal immigrants come to Americato look for work. If you pass laws to deal with the supply of labor, somehow that will get replenished. Instead, deal with the demand and aggressively go after employers that hire illegal immigrants. The 'supply' of labor will dry up.

Yes

ClevelandBronco

06-04-2010, 03:04 PM

Just as with our drug enforcement policy, we are attacking the supply and not the demand.

Drugs are in high demand, so no matter what measures you take against the supply side, there will always be motivation (mostly illegal) to to provide it. And it gets you nowhere.

Illegal immigrants come to Americato look for work. If you pass laws to deal with the supply of labor, somehow that will get replenished. Instead, deal with the demand and aggressively go after employers that hire illegal immigrants. The 'supply' of labor will dry up.

Yes

I agree. It appears that we share some common ground.

Bwana

06-04-2010, 05:12 PM

This is Obama's cheering section. Dumb, on welfare and critical of the real Americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMK9zxb5HyE&NR=1

HoneyBadger

06-05-2010, 02:02 AM

Just as with our drug enforcement policy, we are attacking the supply and not the demand.

Drugs are in high demand, so no matter what measures you take against the supply side, there will always be motivation (mostly illegal) to to provide it. And it gets you nowhere.

Illegal immigrants come to Americato look for work. If you pass laws to deal with the supply of labor, somehow that will get replenished. Instead, deal with the demand and aggressively go after employers that hire illegal immigrants. The 'supply' of labor will dry up.

But if people think that going to Arizona could get them deported, they would not go there in the first place. And they have to start somewhere, this is a good beginning.

ROYC75

06-05-2010, 08:03 PM

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif ........... after that I stopped reading.

googlegoogle

06-06-2010, 03:20 AM

Just declare the USA is Mexico now and the Illegals will leave in droves to Canada.